King of the Franks, the eldest surviving son of Chlotar I and Ingund. He shared in the partition of the Frankish kingdom that followed his father's death in 561, receiving the old kingdom of Childebert I, with its capital at Paris. Eloquent and learned in the law, he was yet loose-living and died excommunicate. At his death his brothers Guntram, Sigebert I, and Chilperic I shared his realm between them; a tripartite division of the lands north of the Loire thenceforth remained normal, the areas concerned being the east (Austrasia), the west (the future Neustria), and Burgundy.